The White House and Iran Can't Agree on What It Is They Agreed On

So it turns out there's a reason why the statements about the Iran deal from the White House are so wildly different from the other involved governments'. It's not just normal White House lying to the American public, but extraordinary lying to foreign governments too.

The aftermath of the deal struck early Sunday in Geneva has been marked by confusion. According to Iranian media, the country's Foreign Ministry is now claiming that the White House put out an invalid fact sheet about the agreement.

A ministry spokeswoman called it a "one-sided interpretation of the agreed text," and said parts of it "contradict" the actual plan, according to Fars News Agency.

The Foreign Ministry did not specify what language might have clashed with their interpretation of the agreement, but called the White House statement a "modified version of the deal" -- and released their own version of the plan.

That document, among other distinctions, recognizes Iran's "right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," something the White House statement does not mention.

The State Department's response to this was to say that this was just an outline of an agreement, with the details to be worked out later. When asked how long before an actual agreement will be reached that actually is meant to be final and binding, State Department spox Jen Psaki said (surprise!), "I don't have a specific timeline for you."

So let's step back a second. If there was no deal and no idea when a deal would be reached, why would Obama make a special Saturday night address to announce a non-deal "breakthrough" with Iran? You know why.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 11:35 AM

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